Though democracy depends on an informed electorate, a deluge of undifferentiated election information induces confusion, annoyance or mind-numbing boredom. The Internet alone boasts hundreds of election Web sites including the candidates’ own voluminous self-hype pages and the government’s statistics-heavy ones. Even motivated voters do not have the time or the resources to evaluate all candidates on important issues.
As decision day looms in the closest presidential election in 40 years, a few sites help distinguish substance from spin, simplifying decision-making while educating and even amusing visitors.
The most straightforward approach, adopted by several sites, offers questionnaires on significant issues and then, based on your answers, matches you with the candidate most closely aligned with your views. The questionnaires cover similar issues in varying degrees of depth –abortion, affirmative action, campaign financing, crime, drugs, education, foreign policy, gay rights, gun control, school prayer and income tax, among others.
These sites assure anonymity and describe themselves as nonpartisan –giving unbiased coverage to George W. Bush, Al Gore and a selection of minor party candidates, usually Ralph Nader (Green Party), Patrick Buchanan (Reform), Harry Browne (Libertarian), John Hagelin (Natural Law) and Howard Phillips (Constitution). While you are dependent on the Web site’s interpretation of the candidates’ positions, you can compare results from several sites and discover possible inconsistencies.
TrueVote (http://truevote.com) provides Comprehensive and Fast Track methods that both result in one candidate who best matches your answers. For the Fast Track Method (which takes about 10 minutes), TrueVote determined the candidates’ viewpoints “from a variety of political sources including the stated position of a candidate and his voting records.”
The Comprehensive Method goes into more depth and takes longer (30 to 40 minutes). Theoretically, it also gives more objective results because both you and the candidates answer the same questions –the National Political Awareness Test created by “227 of the nation’s most prominent political scientists, journalists and national leaders.”
Bush and Gore, however, did not take the test so results, with this method, will only match to other candidates.
Providing an even more elaborate questionnaire, Speakout (www.Speakout.com/SelectSmart/) aligns you, by percentage, with each major and minor party candidate in order of your preference. As part of its ranking, Speakout furnishes links to more detailed information, including video clips of the candidate.
On this site, you will also learn your political philosophy –you might be shocked to discover that while you thought you were a moderate conservative, your answers reveal you as libertarian anarchist.
A unique aspect of the Speakout Web site, The Tax Policy Calculator (www.speakout.com/taxcalc/tax-quiz.asp) shows how your taxes will be affected by various tax proposals. You must answer questions similar to those on an income tax form.
President Match (www.presidentmatch.com), created by AOL and CBS news, also ranks all the candidates in order of your preference. The candidates’ answers –to a similar questionnaire –are available, as well as quotes from their platform text or other public records. Unlike the other sites, President Match’s comparison guide lets you size up the views of each candidate side-by-side.
The most comprehensive decision-making site Project Vote Smart (www.vote-smart.org/index.phtml) supplies the lengthiest questionnaire but also provides a quick snapshot of how candidates compare with your views on any particular issue. VoteSmart also includes biographies, platforms and voting records for not only presidential candidates but also congressional, state and even local offices.
If you would rather not reveal your political views on the Internet, then these Web sites will help you clarify and compare candidates’ positions. At the exhaustive Issues 2000 site (www.issues2000.org), click on a candidate’s name, then click on one of 23 issues. You will see up to 25 full quotes from the candidate, as well as a definition of the issue, background information, policy papers and a candidate profile.
Designed as a convenient one-stop source of political information, Election 2000 Search (www.electionsearch2000.org/) works as a search engine, locating the latest information on any candidate’s voting record, statements and more. But you must be really specific in your searches. Selecting “Gore,” then typing “drugs” produced a daunting 304 links.
Dave Leip’s Atlas of U.S. Presidents (www.uselectionatlas.org/) works more efficiently. The Election 2000 section of the site shows a chart listing all the major and minor party candidates, including Socialist, Socialist Workers, Prohibition and Workers World parties, with information about their background and experience. The various issues are listed next to the chart. Click on an issue such as abortion and the chart changes to show summaries of each candidate’s platform and policy statements.
The best election gateway site is White House 2000 (www.niu.edu/newsplace/whitehouse.html). Northern Illinois University professor Avi Bass furnishes a mind-boggling number of resources and links, including many of the sites here and those of the major candidates and the government. It also lists interactive and controversial sites with strong opinions as well as the latest news and polls.
Other noteworthy election Web sites provide unique information. One of the few interactive video sites, ABCNEWS.com (www.abcnews.go. com/sections/politics/) presents –at the 2000 Video link –comprehensive C-SPAN coverage of Bush, Gore, Nader and Buchanan on the campaign trail. Select the state and the candidate and a list of his appearances appears. Click on the particular appearance you want to see.
While most sites cover seven to 10 major and minor party candidates, Politics1 –Presidency 2000 (www.politics1.com/p2000.htm) covers all 90 presidential candidates, including independents and write-ins –furnishing biographies and links to their Web sites. For example, California’s self-declared New Age prophet Da Vid (www.lightparty.com) illustrates his “Wholistic Synergistic Platform” with an animated psychedelic light show.
For a history of presidential elections, ElectionsCentral (www.multied. com/elections/) supplies color graphs showing a state-by-state breakdown of both electoral and popular votes for all previous presidential elections. You also will find summaries of the major issues in these past campaigns. For a nostalgic look at presidential campaign commercials dating back to 1952, visit the American Museum of the Moving Image (http://ammi.org).
Finally, Election Political Humor (http://politicalhumor.about.com/comedy/ politicalhumor/cs/elections/index.htm) provides links to various, mostly lame, election comedy sites; more successfully humorous cartoons can be found at the 2000 Presidential section of NewsArt (www.newsart.com/ x/x251.htm). For example, Tom Brinton’s “Debates” encapsulates the information deluge problem by showing two huge mouths threatening to engulf a defenseless citizen.
HOME PAGES
Self-promoting candidate Web sites:
Patrick Buchanan (www.buchananreform.com)
George W. Bush for President Committee (www.georgewbush.com)
Al Gore for President Committee (www.algore2000.com)
Nader 2000 (www.votenader.org)
Government sites:
The Electoral College Page (www.nara.gov/fedreg/elctcoll/index.html) provides statistical information on the Electoral College and results from 1789 to 1996.
Federal Election Commission (www.fec.gov/citizen-guide.html) provides information about financing campaigns and summarizes financial information for 2000 presidential campaigns.
